one afternoon i happened by a communal school in another crowded quarter of brussels, and, tho it was vacation, and i knew the principal had been sadly overworked for two years and ought to be in the country, i decided to knock at the bureau to see if he were in.
i had my answer in the corridor, where rows of unhappy mothers and miserable fathers were waiting to see him. inside there were more. he was examining a little girl with a very bad eye; and i realized why there could be no vacation for the principal!
as i sat there, i heard the noise of [94]marching in the court below, and when i asked what it was, he opened the window for me to see. there were 720 children between six and fourteen years, gaily tramping round and round under the trees, making their “promenade” before the 4 o’clock “repas scolaire” (school children’s repast) which the relief organization is now trying to furnish to each of the 1,200,000 children in the free schools of belgium who may need it—incidentally at an outlay of $2,500,000 a month.
over 8,500 children in the sixty communal schools of brussels proper receive this dinner. it is quite distinct from the eleven o’clock meal furnished at the cantines for children below normal health—they may have both—and it is served in the school building. naturally the school-teachers are carrying a large share in this stupendous undertaking.
for the children, the “repas” is the [95]great event of the day, and, since the vacation, they gather long before the hour. one sees, too, hundreds of little ones on the sidewalks before the enfants débiles dining-rooms, as early as 8 a.m., clutching their precious cards and waiting already for their eleven o’clock potatoes and phosphatine.
this school is also a communal soup center, tho the teachers have nothing to do with the distribution. every day from 2,500 to 3,000 men and women line up—worn, white enamel pitchers in one hand, cards in the other, to receive the family ration of soup and bread.
as i passed one morning, i saw a little bare-legged girl sitting on a doorstep opposite. her mother had evidently left her to guard their portion, and she sat huddled up against the tall, battered pitcher full of steaming soup, her little arms tight about four round loaves—which meant many brothers and sisters. [96]the father was in the trenches. she sat there, a slim, wistful little thing, guarding the soup and bread, the picture of what war means to women and children.
monsieur was particularly happy because he had just succeeded in sending fifteen children, who very much needed to be built up, to the seacoast for fifteen days. it is his hope to establish homes, in the country so far as possible, which shall be limited to from thirty to forty children.
he has continually to arrange, too, for the care of those who may not be in truth orphans, but who belong to the thousands of wretched little ones set adrift by the war. i saw one little boy who had been found all alone in a most pitiful plight beside a gun, in one of the devastated districts. if his parents are still living, no one has yet succeeded in tracing them.
that morning an old uncle had begged monsieur to take charge of his nephew [97]and niece; he had not a penny left, they must starve unless something were done for them. some months before, the father had been wounded at the front, and the mother had foolishly hurried away to try to reach him, leaving the children with her brother. months had gone by—he had had no word from any one—and now he was quite at the end of his resources. and so it was with case after case. something must be done!
besides being the section kitchen and dining-room, this school has become a social center. every sunday afternoon the children are invited to gather there to have a good time. they are taught to play games, each is given a bonbon, a simple sweet of some sort—“nothing of the kind to encourage luxury!” they are occupied, happy, and kept off the streets and out of homes made miserable through lack of employment.
we see, then, that “every day” means [98]literally every day, and we realize how arduous is the task of the thousands of devoted teachers who are standing between the war and those who would otherwise be its victims.
and as they tell us over and over again that the one thing that makes them able to stand is their confidence in the love and sympathy of the united states, we begin to realize our responsibility. it is not only that the wheat and cloth are essential, the encouragement of the presence of even the few (forty to fifty) americans is the great necessity!
at 8.30 the next morning i visited one of the “jardins d’enfants”—schools for children between two and a half and six years of age. there were the teachers already busy in that new department of their work—the war-food department; 460 tiny tots were being given their first meal of the day—a cup of hot cocoa, and, [99]during that month, a little white bread bun. no american can understand what this single piece of white bread means to a french or belgian child. i am sure that if a tempting course dinner were set at one side, and a slice of white bread at the other, he would not hesitate to choose the bread. it is white bread that they all beg for, tho the brown war bread made from flour milled at 82 per cent. is really very palatable, and superior to the war bread of other countries.
a sheaf of letters sent from a school in lille to thank the c. r. b. director for the improved brown (not nearly white) bread gave me my first impression of the all-importance of the color and quality of the bread.
amélie b. wrote:
[100]
“before may 5, 1915, we had to eat black bread, which we preferred to make into flowers of all sorts as souvenirs of the war! but after that date we have had the good, light bread—so eatable. it is for this we thank you.”
another says:
“since we have had the good bread the happiest people are the mothers, who before had to let their “chers petits” suffer from hunger, because their delicate stomachs would not digest the bad, black bread.”
further:
“the mothers of little children wept with joy and blest you, as they went to get their good, light bread.”
one little girl wrote:
[101]
“when on the 5th of may, 1915, maman returned with the new bread, and we all ran to taste it, we found it good. the bread we had been eating long months had been dark and moist. further, rice had been our daily food. it is without doubt to show your gratitude to the french, who went to drive the english away from you in 1783, that you have thought to soften our suffering. merci! merci! many died because of that bad bread, and many more should have died, had you not come to our aid with the good bread.”
another little girl writes:
“if ever in the future america is in need, france will not forget the good she has done and will reach a hospitable hand to her second country, who has saved her unhappy children. it is you who have made it possible for all mothers to give bread to their children. without the rice and beans, what would have become of us! you have helped us to have coal and warm clothing against the cold. in the name of all the mothers we thank you, and all the little children send you a great kiss of thanks.”
the babies had all finished their cocoa and buns, so i went to the girls’ technical training school in the neighborhood. it was having a particularly hard [102]time because of the lack of materials and of opportunity to sell the articles made by the children. but two wonderful women—one the director, the other the art teacher—were courageously fighting to keep things going.
the pupils are largely from poor families. when they were going through the beautiful figures of their gymnasium exercise for me, i saw that the bloomers were mostly made of odds and ends of cloth. the shoes, too, quickly told the tale—all sorts of substitutes for leather, patched woolen shoes or slippers, wooden soles with cloth tops, clogs.
in the room for design i was greeted with most cordial smiles as madame introduced me as her friend from america, the country which meant hope to them. then happened swiftly one of the things it is difficult to prevent—the shouting in one breath of “vive le roi!” and “vive l’amérique!” who would doubt that a [103]good part of the joy of shouting “vive l’amérique” comes from the opportunity it gives them to couple with it the cry of their hearts, “vive la belgique!”
by the time we returned to her bureau, madame trusted me entirely, and explained that this was the center of a kind of “assistance discrète” she had established for her girls and their families. she opened several cabinets, and showed me what they had made to help one another. certain women have been contributing materials—old garments, bits of cloth, trimming for hats, all of which have been employed to extraordinary advantage. what struck me most were the attractive little babies’ shirts, made from the upper parts of worn stockings.
madame opened a paper sack and showed me nine hard-boiled eggs that were to be given to the weaker girls, who most needed extra nourishment that day.
her most precious possession was a [104]record of the gifts of the pupils and their friends for this “assistance discrète.” it is a list of contributions of a few centimes, or a franc or two, given as thank offerings for some blessing; oftenest for recovery from illness, or for good news received. it showed, too, that the children had been bringing all the potato peelings from home, to be sold as food for cattle. sometimes a girl brought as much as twenty-eight centimes (over five cents) worth of peelings. but in may, 1916, the potato peelings stopt—they were not having potatoes at home.
